Oakland County Director of Economic Development

As the Director of Economic Development for Oakland County, Birmingham resident Ingrid Tighe oversees business development and international business attraction; community development and planning; and the County’s workforce development and veteran services. Prior to this position, Ingrid served as the Executive Director of the Birmingham Shopping District and also worked for the State of Michigan, Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency, and the Michigan Economic Development.

Ingrid attended Vanderbilt University on a four-year R.O.T.C. scholarship and was commissioned as a U.S. Army Signal Corps officer upon graduation. She served from 1998 to 2005 with the 1st Infantry Division in Germany, participating in NATO peacekeeping operations in Macedonia and Kosovo and later with the 1st Cavalry Division leading troops in 2004 to 2005 in the combat zone of Baghdad. In Iraq, she had the unique opportunity of working alongside Iraqi National Guard soldiers and training and mentoring Iraq’s first class of female Army officers. After honorably separating from the Army, Ingrid used the post 9/11 G.I. Bill to obtain her Master of Public Administration from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

Ingrid serves on the University of Michigan, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy Alumni board and is a Michigan Political Leadership Program Fellow. She also served as a City of Birmingham Board of Review Member. Ingrid is a member of the Iraq and Afghanistan’s Veterans of America (IAVA) and participated in the IAVA 2014 Storm the Hill initiative in Washington D.C. campaigning to combat veteran suicide. Ultimately, these efforts paid off with the Clay Hunt SAV Act signed into law by President Obama. In addition, Ingrid has published her writing in the book She's Out There: Essays by 35 Young Women Who Aspire to Lead the Nation: The Next Generation of Presidential Candidates and in the Huffington Post.